Expectations vs reality – what it is really like to run your own blog.

Hello, dear readers! I am publishing this blog post one day later because Fresher’s week turned out to be incredibly exhausting. If you have experienced it, you would understand. It is a week of countless meetups, city tours, parties and on top of that, if you are an international student, you have to open bank account, get National Insurance Number and find a job as soon as possible. So now you know the struggle. Even without that, running a blog is not an easy task, especially if you are a student or have non blogging related job, so you have to find a balance between these things. Looking from the bright side – these struggles inspired me to write this blog post that a lot of other bloggers can relate to.

Expectations: I am always inspired to write new blog posts and my head is buzzing from new ideas. Reality: I feel like I have nothing meaningful to share with the world today and I am scared that what I post today might be just a bunch of useless crap.

Expectations: I will write every blog post few days before publishing it. Ideally – I will have several posts scheduled and ready to publish, so I do not have to worry about my blog every second of my life. Reality: I wanted to have proper social life just like all of my friends, so I forgot to put some time away for blogging. Today is the day I have to publish new post but I have nothing.

Expectations: Social media marketing is fun and effortless. I love using Twitter and Instagram anyway! Reality: Why am I loosing followers? How often should I post? This picture only got 26 likes… What am I doing wrong?

Expectations: Blogging is easier than regular job. All I have to do is write content. Reality: Blogging includes researching, planning posts & writing them, social media marketing, networking, commenting on other blogs, finding opportunities to make money, reading about how to improve your blogging & social marketing game and more.

Expectations: I will write one great blog post and get 100 followers, 78 comments and 138 likes overnight. Reality: Few of your very first posts might get only few comments or none at all and growing following is hard work. Staying consistent, using social media the right way and constantly improving is the key.

Expectations: If I will have 10 000 followers, I will be able to make decent money. Reality: Numbers do not matter, if only small part of your followers are engaging with your posts and buying your products.

Expectations: My posts will and have to be perfect from the very start, otherwise people will not like my blog. Reality: Everyone has to start somewhere. Your content quality will improve as you write and you can always go back and edit it.

Expectations: I do not need to promote my old content anymore, people will just stumble upon it because I’m already being consistent and posting new stuff. Reality: You need to promote all of your content. Do not share only new posts, promote old ones here and there, too.

Expectations: I will succeed in blogging without defining my audience and blog topics. Reality: No one wants to read a blog that is “for everyone” and writes about “everything”. Get your shit together. For example, your audience is 20 to 30 years old females. They are interested in career related posts, self-improvement and relationship tips. Go!

Expectations: I will take a few days long break from posting on social media and get well deserved rest. That will not impact my views at all. Reality: After three days of not posting on social media, daily blog views dropped from 50 to 5 . Damn it!

Those are ten main struggles that I have faced in my blogging journey. Could you relate to any of those? If so, drop a comment below. Also, if you would like to see more “expectations vs reality” type of posts on my blog, please let me know in the comments. Until next time on Dolls Have Hearts!

You know what…now a days it is very hard to get inspired because any ideas that we come up with someone has already written. Everyone writes about LIFE, LOVE, CHILD, FREEDOM etc. etc. and we feel maybe what we are going to write is not that good or same old thing but everyone is different (INSPIRATION!!!! 🙂 )..there opinions could be same but way of writing style is different (MORE INSPIRATION!!! 🙂 ). This is how I inspire myself!!! 🙂 (Maybe it helps)